When buying an iPhone on launch day..

[doubleatheman]

We only have one ATT store where we live, and it's a zoo every day of the week, iPhone launch or not. You have to sign in (wtf?) and state what you came for. Now when I had Sprint you just walk in and don't have to do that mess. You get people asking how to turn on/off their phone and talking to a rep for 45 mins, it does get pretty aggravating.

Since 1998 our AT&T store has been like that. Always have to sign in and wait about 20 mins.

Every single cash register is in use, and they have added "Kiosks" in the corners also. It's always packed full of people. It's not like the store is under staffed, it just needs to be bigger.

My Apple store is worse. The genius bar was designed for 2 people at once. Usually 5-6 customers are crowded around it all at the same time. And you cant even walk through the store on a busy day.

That is an old photo they have a large table in the center of the store now, and a second temp table for the genius bar overflow.

 

[cowsrus]

15 mins, but if you want to play with it longer before actually committing to that phone:

Play dumb, ask what mobile me is, ask what apple care is, ask about some of the features, ect ect.

The whole time the poor rep goes through his speech, you get to look over your phone...

Typically with no questions, it takes like 10 mins for activation, but I was the first iPhone 3gs that the guy activated (I was like 6th inline, so they were still new to it.) Also the At&t system was a bit bogged down, so the system was trying to load up the activation.

Seems like that's a pretty good idea
I figure it will only take 2-5 min to run through the phone, any problem that you can't pick up in that time should be bearable for a week while you make a genius appointment

 

[ARF900]

Since 1998 our AT&T store has been like that. Always have to sign in and wait about 20 mins.

Every single cash register is in use, and they have added "Kiosks" in the corners also. It's always packed full of people. It's not like the store is under staffed, it just needs to be bigger.

My Apple store is worse. The genius bar was designed for 2 people at once. Usually 5-6 customers are crowded around it all at the same time. And you cant even walk through the store on a busy day.

That is an old photo they have a large table in the center of the store now, and a second temp table for the genius bar overflow.

That looks like hell, considering how packed the stores usually are.

 

[cowsrus]

Since 1998 our AT&T store has been like that. Always have to sign in and wait about 20 mins.

Every single cash register is in use, and they have added "Kiosks" in the corners also. It's always packed full of people. It's not like the store is under staffed, it just needs to be bigger.

My Apple store is worse. The genius bar was designed for 2 people at once. Usually 5-6 customers are crowded around it all at the same time. And you cant even walk through the store on a busy day.

That is an old photo they have a large table in the center of the store now, and a second temp table for the genius bar overflow.

I have one of those at my mall, thankfully it isn't the closest one near me

I'm spoiled having an Apple store, one of the large ones divided into iphone, mac, ipod, etc sections, in between two different AT&T Stores, all within 2 min walking distance of each other

and the drive there from my house is only about 15 min

 

[AbSoluTc]

Since 1998 our AT&T store has been like that. Always have to sign in and wait about 20 mins.

Every single cash register is in use, and they have added "Kiosks" in the corners also. It's always packed full of people. It's not like the store is under staffed, it just needs to be bigger.

My Apple store is worse. The genius bar was designed for 2 people at once. Usually 5-6 customers are crowded around it all at the same time. And you cant even walk through the store on a busy day.

That is an old photo they have a large table in the center of the store now, and a second temp table for the genius bar overflow.

I wouldn't step foot in that death trap! Looks like a long road to hell. Lol.

The only Apple store in our area is decent. However it gets packed to the point it's not even worth going. Mostly it's people playing with the stuff. It's like a high end baby sitting store for ADD/ADHD kids that parents drop off.